Conventional technology for cleaning paints and resins from surfaces such as the skin utilized a combination of industrial purpose dibasic esters in a hand cleaning compound formulation. These formulations, although effective in removing lipophilic soils, have met with limited acceptance owing to long term storage stability. Over time, dibasic esters tend to hydrolyze into their acid counterparts. This causes the pH and viscosity of a composition containing the same to decrease significantly, causing the composition to become unstable and phase separate. Agitation will render the phase separated composition homogeneous for only a short period of time before it again reverts back to a biphasic state.
Limiting the amount of dibasic esters present in a cleaning composition, while advantageous in reducing overall organic solvent content of a cleaning composition, has proved difficult as a replacement material must prove to be effective against lipophilic soils while retaining stability and precluding skin irritation. Additionally, any substitute for a dibasic ester would ideally also have a reduced ecotoxicity value as measured by an LC50 test per the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. While other organic solvents have been evaluated, the solvents have proven to be unable to achieve the disparate requirements for a dibasic ester substitute.
Thus, there exists a need for a cleaning composition substituting a substance for all or part of dibasic esters found in conventional lipophilic soil gelled cleaning compositions with superior storage stability while remaining effective against soils, having a reduced ecotoxicity and skin compatibility.